


Access through Points

by Starb_uck



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Blackmail, Coercion, Dubious Consent, Dubious Ethics, Emotional Manipulation, F/F, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Power Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:55:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6946489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starb_uck/pseuds/Starb_uck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina turns her irritation at Emma's intrusiveness into her life into a positive arrangement... a 'system' that works for her. It turns out not to be such a great deal for the Sheriff, but since when has that ever been Regina's primary concern...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Access through Points

**Author's Note:**

> All non-con / dub-con is implied, relationship itself is implied, nothing explicit, mostly dialogue. Thought better to tag than not, though. 
> 
> Still, a work in my usual vein, although a new fandom for me. Catching on super late to the show! Sorry if this idea has been done before - it just leapt out at me and demanded to be written. 
> 
> Set mid-season 1.

"Miss Swan. Henry's away at camp, I'm afraid. There's nothing for you here".

The Mayor was seated at her desk, working on some papers. Immaculately turned out as always, lipstick seeming even brighter than usual. Red lipstick. The colour of power. Emma batted away the sense of defencelessness she always felt around this woman. 

"He's gone to camp? When? Why the fuck didn't you tell me?!"

"Language, Miss Swan. And I wasn't aware that I was under any obligation to inform you of *my son's whereabouts".

She smiled, shuffling some papers together and finally looking up to meet the angry Sheriff's furious gaze. 

"He's my son too!"

"Not in the eyes of the law. Now. Was there anything you wanted to discuss, or did you simply come here to rehash old grievances, to stamp your little feet?"

Oh, this bloody woman!! Emma felt her fury rising and had to actively try to fight it down. How did the Mayor seem to know exactly what buttons to press to affect her like this? Nobody else could get under her skin the way Regina could. She bit back the insults that leapt to her lips. 

"Fine. Maybe now's actually a good time to talk, Madame Mayor, with Henry out of the way and all. I'd like to discuss access issues with you".

The Mayor affected puzzlement. "Nothing to discuss, Miss Swan. Henry is my son, and he lives with me. You may see him, when you have built up enough points. You know the rules, don't you? Or are you too stupid to remember them?"

Emma gazed at her wordlessly. This bloody points system.. Oh, she knew the rules, alright. It was this exact system she'd come over here to discuss, determined to make Regina see reason. 

"Miss Swan! I asked you a question! Do you remember the rules, or don't you?"

The Mayor rapped the question out suddenly, her voice slightly raised, and Emma jumped. She hated herself for doing so, and she knew by the barely-suppressed smirk on Regina's face that her reaction hadn't gone unnoticed. 

"Yes," she muttered, unwillingly. 

"Good. Will you repeat them for me, please?" The Mayor was looking back at her desk again, hunting among the papers for something, as if the Sheriff didn't even merit her focussed attention. Emma felt the old humiliation and rage surround her once more. But she knew she had to comply, if she ever wanted to have a proper relationship with Henry. She knew the Mayor would be entirely within her rights to withhold access completely.. and Emma didn't think she'd be able to handle that. And so she complied with Regina's twisted games, as she always did. 

"I.." She cleared her throat. "I have to.. earn points to be allowed to see Henry".

"Indeed you do. And how can those points be used, Miss Swan?"

She knew them off by heart. Regina had compiled the list, and made her learn it.

"Ten points for a half hour at the diner with him. Fifty points for an evening bowling, or at the cinema. A hundred points for an evening and a sleepover. Two hundred points for the whole day..."

She recited the list woodenly, refusing to meet the Mayor's eyes. Regina cut her off. 

"Thank you, Miss Swan. I'm so glad to see that you've been paying attention. Now. How do you earn your points?"

The humiliation was the worst part of this, and she knew that the Mayor knew it. 

"Through good behaviour, and respecting you, Madame Mayor". Emma hung her head now, with the shame of it. 

"And?" The voice was implacable, relentless. 

"And by doing what you tell me to do. Especially at work". The Sheriff was cowed now, the wrath that had taken over and brought her here now melted away under the sheer forceful presence of this woman. 

"Exactly. Especially at work. I must say, I find this arrangement most satisfying. I get an obedient son, who is so much more pliable now because he looks forward so to his.. *infrequent and therefore valuable moments with his birth mother.." She broke off, looking up at the Sheriff with barely-disguised contempt. "Although what on earth he sees in you, I have no idea".

Emma stared at the floor. "We have fun", she muttered. 

Regina looked at her distastefully. "'Fun?'" She spat the word out as if it tasted bad. "'Fun' doesn't provide a young man with an education. 'Fun' doesn't teach him how to behave like the privileged child he is, as befits the son of the town's Mayor. 'Fun' won't teach him the importance of working hard in order to be able to put food on the table..."

Emma interrupted, her frustration at not being able to see her son and at the Mayor's ridiculous power games bubbling over all of a sudden. 

"But that's where you're wrong! It's not all about teaching him to behave better, to be an adult! He'll be one, soon enough.. Having fun with him teaches him to relax, to enjoy himself- he's ten years old, for Christ's sake! Come on, admit it.. don't you just love it when he gives you that grin of his, that one that always seems to split his..." 

She stopped, staring at the Mayor with rising apprehension. Regina looked mad, her lips compressed to a thin line, her eyes flashing fire. Emma wondered uneasily if Regina ever actually had in fact seen Henry's best grin, the one she liked to tease him made him look like one of those characters off South Park. 

"I'm sorry, Regina. It's just.. well, you know the phrase, 'All work and no play...'" She trailed off lamely. 

The Mayor capped her pen and placed it neatly before her on the desk. She folded her fingers together and smiled thinly at Emma. There was no warmth in that smile. 

"And so now you know better than I do what *my son needs. I see. Well, leaving aside that issue for the moment.." She lifted her right hand to forestall Emma's objections, fixing her with a cold eye as she continued. "As I say, *for the moment, perhaps you'd like to finish telling me about your Access through Points system. A system which, may I just say, you fully signed up for".

Emma looked daggers at the other woman. "I didn't exactly have a lot of choice, Regina", she muttered, fury once again doing battle with common sense. 

Regina smiled. "No. No, you did not. A point which is entirely irrelevant, anyway. Now. Speaking of points.. you've told me about how you can accrue them, and what you can use them for. What else?"

Emma gritted her teeth. Why on earth had she come here today, put herself through this humiliation? She'd let her anger drive her, and look where it had got her.. being put through her paces like a damn circus pony. Still.. Better just to get it over with... 

"Points can be taken away for bad behaviour and for not following instructions," she muttered, her voice dull, her eyes looking past the Mayor to the far wall. 

Regina smiled, her earlier fury all gone, her sense of power and complete control quite restored. All was well with the world again, the rebellious Sheriff firmly put back in her place. 

"Just so. And therefore, you won't complain, or argue with me, will you Miss Swan, when I tell you that for interrupting me when I was talking you will be deducted a further fifty points?"

Emma gaped at her. "But..."

The Mayor interrupted her. "I'm not finished, Sheriff. Be careful, lest you lose yourself another fifty".

Emma shut her mouth but stared furiously at the Mayor. 

"And take that impertinent look off your face. I've got better things to do than sit around all night with a sulking child, on one of the rare nights without one of my own. Oh, and speaking of Henry," Regina smiled sweetly now, still holding the Sheriff's furious gaze, "you contradicted me just now on how best to bring him up. That's got to be at least a one hundred point deduction, wouldn't you say?"

Emma felt sudden tears prick at the back of her eyes. She knew what this meant. The Mayor continued, still smiling with satisfaction. 

"I believe I was telling you earlier, Miss Swan, about how this.. *arrangement of ours is working so beautifully for me. Before you so rudely interrupted me.. It ensures my son's compliance, and it *also ensures yours. Now I have my own pet Sheriff, who I can count on to do what I think best, and to run this town as I see fit. Isn't that just wonderful?"

She smiled and pushed her chair back, adjusting her skirt as she crossed to the window.

"It's late, Miss Swan. Hadn't you better be getting back to the station? Criminals to catch, you know..." She turned and winked at the Sheriff Emma felt vaguely ill. 

"Regina.." she started, weakly. She didn't know why she was bothering to do this, knew it wouldn't make any difference, but still she had to try. "Regina, we agreed that I was taking Henry to the fair next Saturday. I've arranged the day off, and I had enough.. *points..." 

She gave a moue of disgust at the last word, even as Regina's grin widened. 

"But, my dear, that was prior to tonight's little.. *outburst, wasn't it? You no longer have the necessary points for an all day event, through your own stubbornness and intractability. Once again, Henry suffers, because of you. Becoming a bit of a theme, isn't it, Sheriff?"

Emma stared at her, her dignity quite gone. She wished she could go back in time, to undo what she had done. She wished she'd learned from the start the obvious all-pervading truth of this town- that going up against the Mayor was a stupid, stupid idea. She'd never thought that she'd lose, and lose like this. She swallowed the lump in her throat. 

"Regina, please.."

"Whining now, Sheriff? Where's that famous stubbornness gone, hmmm? How many points do you have now? Quickly!" She rapped out the words, making Emma jump again, involuntarily. 

"Ummm... Fifty?"

"Fifty. So take him to the damn movies. That is, if you can manage to behave yourself sufficiently between now and then. Now get out".

She turned and moved towards the door, gesturing impatiently for Emma to precede her. The implication was clear; the discussion over. Emma trailed towards her, her complete dejection evident in the slump of her shoulders, the lowering of her head. 

As Regina opened the front door for her and stood back to allow her to pass through, she stopped her with a cleared throat. 

"Oh, Sheriff Swan? If you wanted an opportunity to earn some more points, I have a proposition for you..."

Emma stopped, halfway through the door. She turned back to face the Mayor, resignation evident in her face. "If you're interested, get back in here now. But if you do, be aware that you're gambling with your remaining points".

The Sheriff sighed inside. She knew what was expected of her. It was why she was invariably summoned to the Mayoral residence on nights when Henry was elsewhere. She complied, as she always did, crossing back over the threshold, pulling already at her coat. 

Regina smiled wickedly as she pulled the heavy door closed, following the silent Sheriff towards the stairs. 

"Remember, Miss Swan, one of the first rules of business. Investments can go down as well as up".


End file.
